There is no Fate but the Fate which we are given.
Zakharan proverb
In Zakhara Fate is the force which guides and shapes the lives of everyone, and all Zakharans know her power. Is she a god? The god of gods? Powerful ruler of the genies? Or simply a pervasive force beyond true comprehension? The answers are for the sha'irs and priests to debate. For others, it matters not who Fate is, but what she does. She is the weaver of Time, supplying threads of the future and mixing them with threads of the past. She graciously provides the basis for all victories, and she is the justification for all defeats. She does not excuse characters who do not do their best, however; their future is in their own hands as well as in the hand of Fate. Win or lose, she is always there, the supreme mediator and guardian of the future.
Dehydration, blinding storms, sandslides that bury characters alive—these are but a few of the perils faced by characters in Fate's burning land. She is not without mercy, however. Characters who find themselves in dire and deadly straits can call upon Fate for aid. She may smile upon those who call her, but she also may turn her hand against them. Most Zakharans try to avoid placing themselves in need of such divine intervention.
How to Call Upon Fate[]
To call upon Fate, a character must be in a position where survival is doubtful at best. For example, a character without a weapon, surrounded by a pride of hungry panthers, would be in a sufficiently desperate situation. So would someone trapped in a back alley by an angry contingent of the sultan's guard. So, too, would a character trapped in a well, into which a flame wizard is about to cast a fireball; or a character falling from a flying carpet half a mile above the ground. Life- and-death situations are preferred.
Calling upon Fate requires a percentage roll. If the result is 01 or 02, Fate intervenes on the character's behalf. If the result is 96 or more, the hand of Fate turns against the asker. (Results are described below.)
Clerics of Order are an exception. They, too, make percentage rolls, but they have a better chance of success, regardless of their personal faith or their place in the religious hierarchy. When a pragmatist, ethoist, or moralist calls upon Fate, the cleric's chance of success equals 20 minus his or her experience level, to a minimum of 2 percent. (Fate favors the young.) If the result is 98 or more, the hand of Fate turns against the asker. Clerics who escape with their lives would be wise to donate extra funds to their churches; an amount totaling each priest's experience level times 1,000 should suffice.
An individual should call upon Fate rarely, at most once per week. Each additional call within a given week increases the chance that Fate will turn against the asker by 5 percent (DM's option). If player characters tend to call upon Fate every time they're in a jam, this penalty is highly recommended.
Fate's Response[]
If Fate intervenes on a character's behalf, the DM is responsible for coming up with some good fortune that gives the individual at least a fighting chance. For example, in the case of the panthers, the moonlight might suddenly glint upon the blade of an old weapon, fortuitously buried in the nearby sand. In the case of the city guard, a higher-up might suddenly shout, "You fools! Take the prisoner alive!" For the character about to be incinerated in a well, a scattering of rocks might break loose, revealing a small passage in the side of the well. And for the plummeting character, a large eagle might fly nearby, allowing the character to grab hold and slow his or her fall. Alternately, a passing djinni might take an interest in the plummeting mortal, and begin negotiating terms of a rescue. Should the mortal hesitate, the djinni might even save the character just as the ground loomed up from below.
At the very least, a character upon whom Fate smiles should be granted a +4 bonus to one immediate saving throw-even a saving throw—where none would otherwise be available. Alternately, the character could receive a +4 bonus for one immediate attack (handy for a character surrounded by killers).
Whatever happens, the DM should not provide the character with an automatic rescue—only with the raw material with which he or she can survive. For example, if the panthers were to suddenly fall to the ground, dead, that would be going too far. The hand of Fate works a bit like the old serial plots from the 1920s and beyond; the hero seems doomed and hopeless, but when a new reel begins, some means of escape miraculously appears, allowing his saga of perils to continue.
If Fate turns her hand against the asker, the individual suffers a -4 penalty to all saving throws, attacks, proficiency checks, and other random rolls for the next six turns. Of course, in a truly desperate situation, the character may die before six turns elapse. Such are the risks of tempting Fate.
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